Bardsey's Wildlife

Tuesday 26 May 2020

Today had a very grizzly start, with clouds hanging low over the mountain and sea fog right up to the coast, it certainly wasn't the most pleasant of mornings to be out. However, as the day went on, the cloud slowly burnt off and it was very hot indeed at times.

George was up at 04:30am to have the nets in the garden open by 05:00 - today's very calm weather was perfect for ringing, there weren't a great deal of birds around though, so between net rounds George started writing up the data from his burrow checks. A Sedge Warbler was probably bird of the morning in the nets - full totals will be at the bottom.

Sam headed out to the Northern recording area to do the morning census and stopped off at Nant first; five Spotted Flycatchers were busy feeding around the perimeter and two Collared Doves were in Ty Capel withy - it'll be interesting to keep an eye on these and see if they're up to anything. Also at Nant was the first fledgling Song Thrush of the year, these were extinct as a breeding species from 1967-2017 and then they have bred every year since, and including, 2018.

Spotted Flycatcher at Nant

The Withies were a little quieter with a further three Spotted Flycatchers and three Sedge Warblers for company. A brood of Meadow Pipits had fledged from beside Plas Withy and their parents were busy ferrying food to all four of them. A Willow Warbler was still singing away from in Cristin Withy, as with the Collared Doves, it will be interesting to see if this attempts to breed this year as they are only an occasional breeder on the island.

Early afternoon saw Sam and George head out to crack on with some more of the Manx Shearwater census, between them, another 250 burrows were counted today, they had to pack in early-ish though as a trip round to the East Side of the Island to monitor the seabirds was planned.

We headed round from Pen Cristin to count the seabird colonies at the Southern End of the East Side - we first stopped in the Herring Gull colony below Pen Cristin. There were a few chicks hatched in the area we viewed the cliffs from, and we found a few Shag nests from here, too. A Puffin flew out of a burrow nearby where we were standing too and stood below, always a stunning bird to see up close.

Puffin on Pen Cristin

two Herring Gull chicks in the Pen Cristin colony

A Shag on a nest at Pen Cristin

This Shag was ringed a little further along the coast in the nest at Barcut in 2010!

Sam headed down to Barcut to count the Kittiwake, Guillemot, Razorbill and Shag nests at Tornado Ledge and checked the contents of the Shag nests while he did - most of the Shag pairs now have chicks, however a few are still incubating eggs at the moment.

Kittiwakes on the nest at Tornado Ledge.

Razorbill at the Nest site at Tornado Ledge

We there headed for another section of the Kittiwake Colony at "Little Kitt Colony", 39 Adults On Ledges (AOLs) were counted along with a further 12 Shag nests. After the colony had been counted, a couple of the Kittiwakes were caught and ringed and released soon afterwards.

The "Little Kitt Colony"

Adult Kittiwake

a photo showing the red orbital ring quite well

The scientific name fir Kittiwake is Rissa tridactyla. The genus name Rissa is from the Icelandic name Rita the name of this species, and the specific tridactyla is from Ancient Greek tridaktulos, "three-toed", from tri-, "three-" and daktulos, "toe"

Other highlights and complete counts were: 45 Shags, two Sand Martins, 15 Swallows, 21 House Martins, 16 Stonechats, 13 Wheatears, six Sedge Warblers, four Whitethroats, one Blackcap, four Chiffchaffs, one Willow Warbler, three Great Tits, 28 Siskins and 20 Goldfinches.

Ringing today produced Goldfinch 6, Stonechat 3, Chiffchaff 1, Blackbird 2, Sedge Warbler 1, Kittiwake 2. Total 15 birds of 6 species.

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Click to see inside!

Edited by Mike Archer, Mark Grantham, Peter Howlett and Steve Stansfield and published by T & AD Poyser, this fabulous book describes how much has changed since the first edition of Bird Observatories in Britain and Ireland was published in 1976. There are detailed accounts of the history and work carried out at each of the 18 observatories, with personal accounts by wardens and staff of the excitement of discovering a rarity, watching thousands of migrants attracted to a lighthouse after dark, and the pleasure and experiences that working at some of the country’s most remote and beautiful locations can bring. Click the picture of the book to see inside or to buy your copy.

Migrants

Being sited on the main migration route of many species, Bardsey (or Ynys Enlli in Welsh) is a well-known site for migrant birds, turning up many scarcities and rarities, as well as large numbers of common migrants. The island’s list now stands on 326, after the recent addition of Citrine Wagtail in October 2012.

Although Bardsey’s reputation for rare birds may not quite match that of some observatories, it is almost certainly the best site in Wales for rarities. Among Bardsey’s rarer visitors are the first Summer Tanager (1957) and Yellow Warbler (1964) to have been recorded in Britain and Ireland, as well as American vagrants such American Bittern, Sora, Kildeer, Spotted Sandpiper, Grey-cheeked Thrush, American Robin, Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Red-eyed Vireo, Black-and-white Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Blackpoll Warbler. To add to this impressive list of rarities, Black-winged Stilt, Lesser Yellowlegs, Lanceolated Warbler, River Warbler, Western Orphean Warbler, Booted Warbler, Blyth’s Reed Warbler, Eyebrowed Thrush, Thrush Nightingale, Red-flanked Bluetail, Isabelline Wheatear, Black-eared Wheatear, Collared Flycatcher, Blyth’s Pipit, Pine Bunting, Rock Bunting, Yellow-breasted Bunting and White-throated Sparrow have all been recorded.

Besides the rarities, Bardsey regularly attracts large numbers of weary migrants during 'fall' conditions in Spring and Autumn, largely a consequence of the fully operational Bardsey Lighthouse. In 2011, for example, a single grounding of migrants resulted in over 1000 Willow Warblers making groundfall on the island in August. In the not-so-distant past, a single attraction of 40,000 Redwings occurred in late October at the end of the last century.

Breeding birds

Bardsey is home to some 26, 000 pairs of Manx Shearwaters, which can be heard on dark nights from mid-March to August. They breed in their excavated burrows, which are scattered all over the island. Chough is the most important species of conservation concern, with between four to eight pairs nesting around the coastal cliffs most years, and a wintering flock of up to 50 individuals. A pair of Peregrines breed on the island, and a 1-2 pair of Ravens also nest most years. There are several species which nest only occasionally, such as Sparrowhawk and Little Owl, along with Afro-Palearctic migrants like Sedge Warbler, Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler. Up to ten pairs of Stonechats can nest in the isolated gorse patches around the island, along with many Linnets and Meadow Pipits. Corncrakes were once a common breeder on the island, although since 1970 there have been no confirmed pairs nesting. In recent years the likes of Lapwing, Yellowhammer, House Sparrow and Starling have also all become extinct as breeding species. In contrast, Shelduck, Puffin, Long-eared Owl, Grasshopper Warbler and Goldcrest have been added to the breeding bird list since 1998.

Ringing

Ringing is a very important part of the observatory’s role on the island. Since 1953, the observatory has ringed over 315,00 birds of 198 species. The highest number ringed in a single year was 1988, with a total of 11, 301 birds ringed of 93 species. There have been many days in the observatory’s history when several hundred birds have been ringed in one day; these occasions have mostly involved breeding seabirds, although these numbers can also easily occur with migrant species.

Lepidoptera

A total of 561 species of moths have been recorded on the island. Bardsey is not an overly good location for scarce moths, although the existence of Thrift Clearwings (Nationally scarce) has been established on the Thrift plants around the coast in recent years, after first being recorded in the years 1980 and 1996. Migrant moths arrive in small numbers every year, for example the annual arrival of Hummingbird Hawkmoths in the autumn; rarer immigrants in the past have included Death’s Head Hawkmoths, Vestals, Crimson Speckled and Red-necked Footman.

In recent years, a greater emphasis has been placed on recording and identifying the so-called ‘micro-moths’, which has resulted in the finding of 41 new species for Bardsey since 2011. In 2012, the coastal subspecies of Eana penziana (E.p.colquhounana) was re-found on the island, which was the first time that this Nationally Scarce species had been recorded on Bardsey since 1966. Apotomis semifasciana is also amongst the scarcer species of micro-moths to inhibit the island (also Nationally Scarce).

Butterflies are present on the island in small numbers, with species such as Common Blue, Small Copper and Small Tortoise-shell being the most common. A scarcer breeding species is the Grayling, which can be found in small numbers on the top of the mountain. Migrant butterflies such as Painted Lady can arrive in their hundreds, although other migrants such as Clouded Yellow and Dark-green Fritillary are quite rare.

Bardsey's Wildlife

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Tuesday 26 May 2020

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